Google leases iconic blimp Hangar One from NASA

A Google subsidiary is reportedly taking over management of NASA's historic Hangar One and the surrounding Moffett Federal Airfield.

Google's real estate subdivision, Planetary Ventures, is in negotiations for leasing the site and as part of the deal, the search giant would perform the maintenance on a number of structures around the airfield and would pay to operate the airfield.

According to The Verge, the deal would thus cut NASA's costs and allow it to focus its resources on core missions while protecting the federal need to use Moffett Field as a continued, limited-use airfield.

Hangar One was built in the 1930s to originally house rigid airships, but was later repurposed as a more general-purpose hangar by the Navy. In 1994 it was turned over to NASA's Ames Research Center, but it was closed after toxic chemicals were found leeching from the outer skin in 1997, the report added.

Google has agreed to re-skin Hangar One and rehabilitate it along with Hangars 2 and 3, as well as create an educational and public use facility and maintain Moffett Field itself.

The report said that Google executive-owned company H211 signed contracts to operate and store executives' private jets at Moffett Field, paying an estimated 2 million dollars-a-year and carrying out some scientific research with the planes.